Chocolate Oranges:
Atsuki Chishio Ni

It's been a peculiarly tangible day, Nabiki remarked silently
to nobody in particular as she sat on the smoothly wooden porch
of her house, gazing out at the pond in which untold aquatic adventures,
unheeded by its human landlord, progressed silently day in and day
out. It seemed, at first glance, to be a somewhat standard Thursday
afternoon, with the cloud layer reminding one less of a celestial
quilt of lumpiness and more of a threadbare white flannel sheet,
slightly tossed aside on the west edge. It made Nabiki feel tired,
yet oddly alert. One of the carp began to make a swimming sprint
in preparation for a quick leap through the surface of the water,
but then thought the better of it.

Nabiki turned her attentions away from the unnaturally serene panorama
of the neighborhood to look back into the empty house. Akane had
excused herself soon after breakfast, giving a nearly inaudible
explanation of some sort before ducking into the back yard, climbing
over the wall, and sprinting off. Upon reflection, Nabiki realized
that this seemed a little strange, but at the time she just plain
hadn't noticed. Ranma and Kasumi left to go to a disco, walking
hand in hand, and this too, only at a later time, had raised an
eyebrow or two, though not both at once. Nothing to worry about,
she thought to herself, or at least she liked to imagine she had.
The reluctant carp nibbled a few pieces of vegetation, trying to
gather courage for his second attempt.

Her dad had taken a bath. This was one of the things he did at
times, and most people, especially in Japan, would see this as a
perfectly normal activity, except that most people, even in Japan,
don't take their baths at three in the morning and stay in there
well past four PM. Luckily, Ryoga had passed by three times, and
each time had reported to Nabiki that he "wasn't quite done
washing his hair", and "worried about lunch", which
had calmed her down considerably, except at those times when she
stopped in her tracks to think about it for a while, before continuing
on with her routine.

The trouble of it all was, as she continued her internal debate,
that her routine was less so today than other days. There
was this occasional thought that she ought to go to school, and
that many other people ought to as well, but somehow there didn't
seem to be a need. Nor much of a want, for that matter. Moreover,
for some bizarre reason, there didn't seem to be a school. Yet these
occasional thoughts persisted, and this only served to make Nabiki
even more tired, as well as even more alert.

To ease her troubled mind, Genma had remained. Unfortunately, he
had quite forgotten his panda form, and, just as Nabiki had gathered
enough resolve to go to the kitchen for something to drink, he leaped
over the wall of the backyard and pranced about in his newly acquired
elk form. It appeared as though he had designed it personally, as
his neck was easily a meter long if it was a centimeter. This, apart
from all else that had happened on this day, helped her relax to
some small degree. The adventurous carp, seeing Genma's rasorial
dance, began to formulate a plan.

Nabiki entered the kitchen, which had the splendid luck of becoming
a great comfort to her, what with the rest of the family off and
about doing who-knows-what all day. Now all that remained was a
classic dilemma: whether to eat or to drink. There was plenty of
breakfast left over, but she considered that highly suspect, not
just for the fact that Akane had prepared it, but for the fact that
Akane, Ranma, and Genma had, and with an inordinate amount
of eagerness, as well. There was other food about, but it was mostly
fit only for an elk.

Suddenly, she jumped back as if a bell the size of Okinawa had
struck. There was something most definitely not right about today,
she knew that now. Even her tired-yet-alert state hadn't caught
on in time, and she felt as if that had been a major mistake. However,
it took her a few seconds to think of some way to correct her oversight.

"I need a drink."

After having informed the kitchen at large, even with nobody present,
Nabiki soon decided that she had been addressing the refrigerator,
seeing as that was the most logical thing to do. She slowly edged
towards it, keeping one eye on the breakfast sitting on the table,
minding its own business quite well, and the other on the window,
as she half-expected Genma to have shifted his form once again and
stuck his head through the window, as if to nibble on some breakfast
laying nearby. She finally got to the fridge, and with one hand
calmly trembling, carefully opened the door and looked inside.

It was filled with Snapple and Jell-O.

Genma burst through the window, a carp silently biting onto his
leg, and galloped over to the fridge, where he began to eat and
drink.

Nabiki, deciding that Thursday wasn't a good day for this, calmly
passed out with a fever.